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Games Entertainment

Sbox Homemade Console 131

Posted by michael from the santa-is-making-a-list dept.
Anonymous Coward sent in: "I just ran across a very cool homemade emulation console. It emulates multiple machines, plays movies, plays mp3s, and uses Intel's new wireless gamepads to control everything. It's also cased in plexiglass and uses its own menuing software. The best I've seen yet!" His remote has a docking station.
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Sbox Homemade Console

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  • How does he plug in those old cartridges?
    • He doesn't have to, just download the ROMs from the thousands of warez sites out there.
    • Via some sort of 100 megabit ethernet connection I'm sure...

      Don't you know all the original cartridges are stored in a nuclear-safe safe, and he merely has them "backed up" onto roms either inside the machine or a network hop or two away :)

      Thats what mine does anyway, no cool case though :(

    • Heh, not sure if this was supposed to be funny or not, but you would have to download them/burn them as roms (dumps of cartridges, stored on your computer). A custom machine that reads the cartridges for the three systems it supports would be incredibly difficult/impossible to make.
    • I just hope no one breaks the thing open and tries to insert a NES cartridge in an ISA slot ;)
  • minus the roms ofcourse. Does this remind anyone of the Mame Arcade Cabinets people have built?
    • Yeah. This is the same thing as a Mame cabinet, except in a small pexiglass box and wireless pads instead of little buttons. It does have a slick UI though. I'm building a Mame cabinet and that's inspired me to build something sexy like that.

  • Arcade cabs (Score:5, Informative)

    by Bodero ( 136806 ) on Saturday September 01, 2001 @08:09PM (#2244173)
    For those of you who want to build your own arcade cabs, just like the Sbox, you may want to check the Arcade@Home site at http://www.arcadeathome.com [arcadeathome.com].
    In addition to the MAME front-end of the same name, the site features a nice collection of pics and links to converted and custom-built cabinets. IIRC, the Plastic Cactus site linked from this page has a set of measured drawings that might be useful, and there are probably others too.

    There's also the very nice Build Your Own Arcade Machine site: http://plaza.powersurfr.com/kevin/arcade/ [powersurfr.com]

    Both of these sites are geared toward creating cabinets for use with emulation, but if that's not what you're after I'm sure they could be adapted for true arcade hardware. I've been thinking of building something like an Sbox myself, someday when I magically become competent with power tools. ;-)

    • Re:Arcade cabs (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 01, 2001 @08:45PM (#2244253)
      For those of you who want to build your own arcade cabs, just like the Sbox, you may want to check the Arcade@Home site at http://www.arcadeathome.com.
      Or not. Arcade@Home is run by Tim Eckel, the same Tim Eckel (affectionately known as "Timmay" in emulation circles) who was previously covered (along with eFront) in a not-too-flattering light [slashdot.org]. He's also infamous for once abusing the MAME license (by offering his own version of MAME called MAME! that differed only in ways like removing the copyright notice at the beginning of MAME, which eventually led to the changing on the MAME license), childishly insulting people he doesn't agree with (like Gridle of the MAME team, or Penny Arcade's Gabe & Tycho) and for not only promising ROMs for download (or, as he puts it, a "link" to his "friend" who has them for download . . . funny, his "friend"'s server seems to have the same IP) but often (seemingly purposely) dedicating so little bandwidth to the downloads that all people get are the ads plastered on the download site. And once, a "hacker" (suuure) changed the search scripts on his site to DDoS Retrogames, an emulation site often critical of Eckel.

      Please, let's not give this guy the ad revenue.

    • For the reasons already explained in another post, plus the site is the worst offender when it comes to annoying popups and requirements for clicking on a million links before reaching anything meaningfull.

      For real info on building your own cabinet go to:

      http://www.arcadecontrols.com/arcade.htm [arcadecontrols.com]

      For the latest arcade ROMs go to :

      http://mame.dk - This is the site the arcadeathome guy tried to eliminate from the face of the earth. [mame.dk]
  • Just the thought of an all in one type of machine has always been appealing. Granted, it wouldn't be my primary PC. Also, it might be nice to play mp3's with winamp and geiss running on it or something during parties. (Of course I would hook it up to my stereo if I had a nice one). A DVD drive would be nice to hook up too, but I wouldn't know how to get software to run the DVD software. A custom DVD player software would be sweet.

  • Ideas (Score:2, Interesting)

    by xfs ( 473411 )
    Make an entertainment center that folds shut to look like one of the mame stations. That way, you can use it as a gaming station, or a cool place to watch movies. Think of all the things you could combine into one... Throw in a PS2 (has PS1 suppt) a DVD-Rom in the sbox, a NICE stereo system.. Wireless keyboard/mouse..

    Wow. I'm thinking about building one of these more and more each day.... :P~~~

  • whoa, watch out for the law (Score:5, Funny)

    by OO7david ( 159677 ) on Saturday September 01, 2001 @08:16PM (#2244192) Homepage Journal
    (satire)

    This is like the box for copyright infringement. First it has all those old NES, SNES, Genisis, or arcade games that no one buys anymore, nor can find anywhere. It'll play those damn MP3's which, as we all know, just mentioning MP3's is illegal. Let's not forget that it plays movies, which are already illegal to watch in any other manner than what is already told to be correct. Lastly, let us not forget that it runs Windows in the unlicensed way; only the XBOX can have windows in console form.

    Striker better quit while he's ahead.

    (/satire)
    • Come on. When was the last time anybody used "Oldest First (Ignore Threads)"? You know what we really need is "Funniest First"!

      `lynx -dump | grep -A 10 -e "Funny"` just doesn't cut it... at least maybe slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=newest would make it easier... hey, I know I'm not the only one out there ;)

  • This is also something else.... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by AgentUmino ( 518891 ) on Saturday September 01, 2001 @08:16PM (#2244194)
    That guy might seem a bit obsessed, but he's nothing. At least his setup can play multiple games. This guy built this custom setup just to play GT3, it's crazy. Check it out. [geocities.com]
  • couldn't find a link from the pages, but the direct link to his menu files is here [slinker.com].

  • This is just a PC with a TV-OUT on it's video card. And a "nice" VisualBasic Menu interface. Okay, fine, it can be used with a widely avalible gamepad syle controler. Oh yeah, he's got some [not so] nice plexi work there too. The thing just runs windows.
    Come to think of it, It's much like the xbox [xbox.com] Only with a worse video card, and more plexi.
    No news here, people. move along.
  • Geez, do Intel have sadists working in their ergonomics lab or something. That big loop thing on the controllers seems take up EXACTLY the same space that gamer's wrists would normally go.

    That can't be good for RSI.
    • I disagree. It looks like the thumbs should be over the buttons and the wrists would go in a straight line from the hand to the elbow, with the four fingers wrapped around the back of the 'horns' and the bottom tie piece turning just below the pinky fingers. Of course, I'd have to hold one to say for sure. Couldn't be much worse than the n64, though. I can't use those more than about 20 minutes without my hands cramping up. the dreamcast was much better, but the angle on the handles was about 20-30 too narrow. If the madcatz controller had smooth plastic buttons, a stronger return spirng in the stick, and a square plus-directional pad, it would have been perfect. (incedientally, as it is, the d-pad and rubberized buttons make it unusable)

  • Just an opinion... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by pixel_bc ( 265009 )

    ... but doesn't this kind of glorify the piracy of ROMs? I mean - I know SOME people get them legit, but most, for sure - don't. Putting stuff like this up just kind of makes everyone think how cool the "emu" scene is, and away they go, downloading....

    Just an opinion, though.

    • Re:Just an opinion... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by rneches ( 160120 )
      As pointed out by prevoius posters, it is often impossible to obtain legitimate copies of many of those games. Also, there are many, many cool games that were never released in the US. I even have a few such Japan-only roms that someone with a hex editor and a death wish took the trouble to translate into English - there's no way you could get that "legitimatly".

      Personally, I wouldn't have any problem paying [a reasonable price] for ROMs, but the option simply isn't available. You see, owning a copyright on a non-confidential item gives the owner the right to require that I pay for my copy of the item. It does not give the owner the right to deny me access to the item if I want it. So, if Nintendo and Sega refuse to sell their old games, then they'll have to live with the fact that trading ROMs is protected by the first amendment. If they feel like dragging people into court for copyright infringement, all the accused have to say is "I would have paid for it, but I was denyed the opportunity to do so," and malicious intent becomes impossible to prove, and the case is moot. I know it's not quite that simple, but I don't see a rational counter argument.

      • Re:Just an opinion... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by nougatmachine ( 445974 ) <johndagen@@@netscape...net> on Saturday September 01, 2001 @09:35PM (#2244342) Homepage
        Not to mention the fact that if something is not being sold any more, there is no signifigant loss being made to, as a random example, Nintendo, every time I "pirate" Donkey Kong Junior.

        This is my beef with anyone who knocks down emulating classic systems: getting the darn games is nearly impossible because companies hoard them until they release a re-hash or a bundled emulator (like Namco Museum). If I could get ahold of legal roms, if they were being sold, than at least this kind of argument would be revelent, in much the same way the file-sharing debate is relevant to labels and artists. But Spy Hunter?!

        IANAL, but I believe this kind of work can only become public domain after 75 years, if the original creator does not renew copyright. The problem is, that law was created before arcade and console games, which have a tendency to become obsolete much faster than, for example, The Fellowship Of The Ring. For printed literature this makes perfect sense, but surely there is a more reasonable way we can govern interactive gaming copyright issues.

        • But Spy Hunter?!

          That would be Spy Hunter, currently in development for the Playstation 2. Old titles never die, they just get re-licensed.

          Take a look at First Star [boulder-dash.com], known for pretty much one game* - Boulderdash, written in 1983, which they are still re-licensing on new platforms, and still fairly vigorously 'protecting' from clone-writers.

          * OK, Spy vs Spy too.
      • It does not give the owner the right to deny me access to the item if I want it.
        Actually yes it does. If I don't want to sell you something as along it is not discrimatory, ie I won't sell to gays or jews.
        But the trading of said really doesn't mess with their income, they don't get any from these anymore anyways


    • Yes, it does. I just passed up buying Final Fantasy II legit (the Japanese NES version fan translated into english), even though the local Walmart has plenty of older NES cartridges that have been magically translated into English.


      Don't whine and moan about the emulation scene. Its not taking away revenues from the gaming machine, these are the same people who would be playing their old consoles if there was no emu scene. Not everyone loves FPSs and MMORPGs. If it makes people happy, and it has yet to be proven that emulation has reduced sales of computer games, then what's the problem?


      Just my $.02

      • Its not taking away revenues from the gaming machine,

        So just because a book is out of print, you should be allowed to steal it from a used-book store?

        these are the same people who would be playing their old consoles if there was no emu scene

        I'm sure they owned one at one time... and I'm sure they would if they actually ever owned the rom... but the sad truth is that a) the console was probably sold when they were 13, and b) they probably dodn't actually own _THAT_ game anyways.

        I have yet to meet someone who didn't download that ROM because "I didn't own it way back then... and that would be wrong."

        Just another opinion, though.

  • Bring out yer dead... (Score:5, Funny)

    by malkavian ( 9512 ) on Saturday September 01, 2001 @08:46PM (#2244255)
    It still amazes me that the big guys haven't cottoned on to the fact that if they did a VERY cheap 'pay to download' service on the ROMs, a lot of people wouldn't be that averse to paying a few dollars for a bunch of well outdated arcade games they loved, or old nintendo game, or whatever...
    That way, they'd have a small revenue stream from obsolete games that nobody would normally buy these days at all...
    And then a lot of people that are forced to use Warez ROMs 'cos they can't get hold of the game for love nor money anywhere other than warez sites can rest easy knowing they've done their bit for society and progress, and the company that produced the game in the first place doesn't have so much to gripe about.
    Despite all this blabbering on about the requirement for copy protect, I think most people just want to pay once for something they use, and don't mind paying a fair price for what they do use...
    I for one would love a nice easy, high bandwith site I could drop onto, pay a couple of dollars for a bundle of ancient games, and just enjoy.
    I do like the stuff this guy's done with the box tho.. :)

    Cheers,

    Malk
    • If I had a bit more time and money (read: if I weren't a student), I would try this myself. I suppose it might help to know a thing or two about business, also.

      Basically, one could set up a company to do this. Partner with companies to sell their old inventory that is currently earning them $0 and split the profits. If I were a game company (and this can be for PC games as well as ROMs), I would have nothing to lose by partnering with such a company and maybe a few bucks to gain.

      The basic idea is this: These companies have merchandise that they aren't selling. If it costs them nothing to sell it, why wouldn't they?
      • Why would'nt they? Because they want people to play their new games and spend money. If I had the choice between spending 50$ and getting one new game, or spending 5$ and getting like...an old nintendo ROM, I would go for the rom. So then people will be playing old games, not the new expensive ones. Plus, people might realize that the gameplay used to be important to a game, not just graphics.
        -tm

      • Re:Bring out yer dead... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Jace of Fuse! ( 72042 ) on Saturday September 01, 2001 @10:28PM (#2244426) Homepage
        If it costs them nothing to sell it, why wouldn't they?

        Costs aren't always monentary.

        Take for example Super Mario Brothers Advance. SMB Advance is essentially just SMB2 with some new stuff thrown in. It will now make for a really nice hand-held title, but do you honstly think Nintendo could resell the title as an N64 remake, or a Gamecube remake? It can sell as a handheld title, simply because at the moment not everybody has a handheld PDA that will effectively emulate the GBA.

        Do you honestly think Nintenod could sell SMB1, SMB2, and SMB3 all on one disc as a collection for the Gamecube? No, probably not. Most likely not, due to the fact that a large percent of the market that still loves those games already has them illegally on their PCs.

        If Nintendo COULD get away with doing it, it's only because there isn't a larger number of people pirating roms. The number of ROMZ pirates grows ever day. For the moment, it's still not nearly as mainstream as MP3 piracy. If we're lucky, it'll stay fairly obscure and won't draw any real legal attention.

        Also one must consider that games aren't like music. People consume them like food and move on. Someone can very easily justify buying a CD when they already have the MP3s, just to have the physical medium. Video games, for whatever reason, haven't felt like "physical medium" since the first ROM image got pulled off of a Cartrige and uploaded to the 'net.

        I still buy my video games. I still spend more money on video games than any other expense I have, and one could say that's almost obsessive. (I wonder sometimes myself). But I also know that not everybody buys their PC titles, fewer still buy old games, and even less go out looking for rare SNES, GENESIS, or N64 carts to add to their collections.

        As much as I enjoy going to Classic Gaming [classicgaming.com] and snatching down a rom image or two, I fully understand why some companies such as Nintendo and Sega don't want their ROMS being distributed. I also understand why they make a good point in "some cases".

        And that's just the thing. "Some Cases". Some games have much higher replay/resell/remarketability value than others. Some of the publishers are gone, others strive on today. But it's those few gems that could resurface as modern products that set the argument for Copyright holders keeping a tight grip on their titles. Nintendo is about to show exactly what they "want to do" with those old titles" when they re-release them on the GBA.

        I was all over Super Mario All Stars when it came out on the SNES. Do you think such a thing is ever going to surface on the Gamecube with piracy all but having destroyed the marketability of older titles? Dream on.

        I think THAT alone should answer the question "why wouldn't they"?

        • But then again ... (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Dlugar ( 124619 )

          I understand your point, but my big beef is ... I own quite a few old NES cartridges. There's no way on earth I'd be able to actually rip the contents off the ROM onto my computer. But I can download them easily from these "warez" sites.

          If I want to play my old games on a new medium, basically, what other choice to I have? Even if NES did have some sort of "download service", I would have to pay again to download games that I already have paid for.

          I honestly can't figure any easy way around it.


          Dlugar
          • I understand your point, but my big beef is ...
            ...
            I honestly can't figure any easy way around it.

            I know. :-( This is why the issue is so hard. I tend to agree downloading roms is a logical way for most of us to get our old games off of that hard medium onto our current machines. After all, fair use, right? We are entitled to use the title. After all, we have the cartridge RIGHT HERE. Some of us do, anyway. I certainly do. I even go out of my way to find old cartridges I don't have just to add to my collection.

            I was very annoyed at Nintendo when they won their lawsuit against one company that was selling a cartridge backup device (I can't remember the name of it now) but I was looking into buying one when they suddenly became illegal. It was sad, but I do definately understand why they did it. Still, the devices exist, though they're used mostly for piracy.

            Fair use. What's fair about a bunch of punk kids breaking the law and ruining a good thing for the rest of us?
            • I tend to agree downloading roms is a logical way for most of us to get our old games off of that hard medium onto our current machines. After all, fair use, right?

              According to Nintendo, wrong. I was at their website yesterday, and it turns out that fair use doesn't apply to Nintendo games... no backups, no "archival" copies, no nothing. http://www.nintendo.com/corp/faqs/legal.html [nintendo.com]

              I don't agree with everything they say there... there are perfectly legal ROMs: the ones people write themselves. I've been thinking a while about how cool it would be to write my own and put it on a cartridge (there's a HOWTO abou tit somewhere). Complete API set for you to develop on...

              -Jason-

        • The RIAA, Microsoft and the MPAA would love you to believe that piracy is killing markets for genuine products, but it simply isn't so. There are no numbers to back that theory.

          I don't believe that SMB all-stars would be a big seller on the GameCube, simply because the technology has advanced and SMB isn't yet retro chic. (Try again in 10 years.) The market wants Final Fantasy 4D DeathMatch, not Mario Bangs a Koopa with lame FM sound effects.

          Here, I can use bold too: Piracy doesn't enter into it. Don't accuse emulator authors and users without solid facts to back your statements up. It's not nice, and it's not fair.

          • It's not nice, and it's not fair.

            I know many roms users. Almost none have the original games. Most don't have all of the games they have the roms for. Few I know have most of the games they have the roms for, and some of us still look for the carts for games we don't have (yet).

            Those are the facts. Almost nobody who downloads roms has all of the original games. It's not nice, and it's not fair, but it is true. I've seen it, you've seen it, and you're only denying it to justify you own guilt.

            If you are downloading roms, you are breaking the law. Note, I DID NOT SAY you were doing something "morally wrong". It's a fuzzy issue that I could take either side of.

            Am I telling people not to download roms? No. I've downloaded Roms and I admit it. [slashdot.org] But if a copyright holder wishes to protect their investment, they have that right and I do respect it.

            Emulation authors and users DO pirate. Some just have more justification for doing so than others. There are two types of emulation users. The first type is the punk who downloads 350 SNES games from a newsgroup flood just to say he has them all. Then there is the person who wants to relive the Adventures of Link, but his NES is packed away, broken, or he no longer owns a TV to plug it into. The first user certainly does not have the same justification for his actions as the second user.

            Unfortunately the FACT IS there are more of the first user type than there are the second. And that is a BOLD FACED FACT.
            • Hell, the simple fact of the matter is that these games, being old hardware, don't last forever. Try finding a working copy of Zelda for NES that hasn't got a shitty home-solder job to replace the battery. They're not out there. A lot of these old games used batteries to save the data on them, and those batteries have a shelf life of about 5 years. Honestly, what's the point of having Final Fantasy if you can't save? And while yes, you CAN replace these batteries.. emulating the damn thing is a lot less hassle than pulling out an NES, hooking it up, replacing the battery after realizing it died 10 years ago, etc.

              The first type of user you mention is really no threat. Does he actually get anything other than a rise out of having pirated 350 SNES games? Not really. If he doesn't get anything from it, the publisher loses nothing. All he has are some bytes on his hard drive that mean jack shit because he doesn't do anything with them. Unfortunately this is true, the way the warez piracy scene works is you have to have an archive of a bunch of shit you'll never use in hopes you find someone who has what you want and you have what they want. Warez has become a black market commodity, only when you give it to someone, you still get to keep it. Thus why companies have a hard time combatting it.


            • Okay, I'm the first type, except I don't do it off a usenet feed. I like my collection to be complete. I know, I'm odd, I don't even play most of the games, other then to make sure they are working. I'm not a threat. Hell, its probably people like me that will be the reason why in 75 years (or forever, thanks Mr. Bono) that the roms will be in existance to be put in the public domain.


              Have you ever thought that the emulation scene is PRESERVING the art? If it wasn't for the emulation scene, many of these games would be lost forever, and I know, its just a video game, and a lot of them are crappy, but I still wouldn't want to see anything that took many hours of work, and can be considered a working example of the state of the arcade/console/computer industry at X time to be lost. In a way, the emulation scene is a less-glorified version of medievil monks copying by hand important manuscripts which would otherwise be unknown to us. (Greek philosophy, Datsun 280 Zzzap, it all has the same cultural standing, y'know. *grin*)


              The collector is beneficial. Unlike warez pirates, whose collectors only help spread a game that has legit copies easily available, the emulation scene (and the abandonware scene, by the same token), is spreading and preserving a product of our civilization that would otherwise be unavailable. Of all my games, I probably only play a half-dozen regularly. Before I got into emulation, as well as after, I bought a few games, and usually rented most from a cheap video store. (I am cheap though, if I buy, I'll wait until the price is reduced to $10-20, or else buy it used if I can't wait.)


              Also, the emulation scene can and will pay money to increase their enjoyment of the gaming experience. Although only one company seems nice enough to release a rom-set, the emulation scene will pay money for faster computers, better vid cards, and toys like TV out, or arcade parts to build their own arcade machine. I don't think "cheap" can be used to describe the serious emu players. They need to put more money into hardware to play an older game just to support the overhead of emulation.


              Just my $.02


              P.S. Copyprotection is getting really annoying. Every new game I buy, it seems like I spend a few hours trying to search for a hack to play it CD-less. Why do every game company out there decide that I want to always have their CD in my one CD drive? I have the hard drive space, I don't mind a "full" option on install. Just gimme back my cd drive!

              • Copyprotection is getting really annoying.

                I tend to agree with that, too. If Copy Protection doesn't prevent the majority of the users from pirating games, and it just bothers the rest of us who buy the games.

                Some Copy Protection isn't so bad. Single disc games that require the disc to play tend to annoy me less, since I tend to play the same game for days at a time thus I just leave the disc in my gaming system's drive. Multi-disc games are the worst offenders, though. Swapping discs is so 1980's.

                I wish it weren't true, but it is. There are more pirates than there are legit owners. Nearly every user I know gets pissed when they ask if they can "burn a copy off of me" in reference to whatever newest game I just bought. Besides thinking they're all cheap bastards (they are), I find it annoying that they try to convince me that "those big companies" have "too much money".

                All I can say is maybe. But not all of the game devs are monoliths that deserve to be stolen from. :-( Just look at Loki.
    • I think that the reason this hasn't been done already is that the companies don't really *want* a niche group of users who want to pay having the old classics anyway. Not when you can take the intellectual property, jazz it up a bit with a bargain basement 3d engine, and sell it for retail to the masses. Look at how many copies of the new Frogger and Asteroids sold... I bet the return on investment was very very nice.
      More than they'd ever see reselling roms.

    • no. (Score:2)

      by garcia ( 6573 )
      better yet, let's keep it the way it is and download the god damn things for free.

    • Why would they want you to spend five bucks on an old game when you're in the demographic that might spend 50 bucks on a new one?

      They would probably rather we all destroy our old cartridges so that those games won't destract from their current offerings ever again.
  • Does it play Doom?
    • Wasn't there an SNES version of doom? And if not I think there was a segaCD or 32x version. So yes, I am pretty sure it will play doom. Or since it is just a windows pc in a plexiglass case with a cool menu system you could just play the pc version of doom (but what fun would that be?)

  • If you do this (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    don't forget about one very important component: licensing. You need to have all your software licensed. This is often overlooked by many people doing things like this but that doesn't make it any less important. You'll probably want to talk to a lawyer before doing anything like this as well. There is also new legislation called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) which is used to stop piracy. If you predict that you will run afoul of the DMCA then you musn't proceed. If you do this don't overlook licensing as it's very important. Have someone come in and audit your "Homemade Console" from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) to make sure your licenses are correct.
  • All this talk about building cabinets for MAME has me thinking about giving it a try. I've got enough spare PC parts (from frequent processor and motherboard upgrades) laying around that I could probably do this no problem. And it would certainly look cool in my game room!

  • TiVO (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Aztech ( 240868 )
    Add a capture card and it looks like a decent competitor to a multipurpose TiVO. Add Ethernet and you can stream the video where you want :)
  • I have to laugh every time I see these things. They look like miniature toilet seats.

    I once had lunch with a marketing manager in the Intel consumer products division. (This was not her product!) I asked why they made them look like... before I said it, she interrupted, and said "I know, don't say it."
  • I've been planning on making a machine similar to this for a while, but one issue that concerns me is the noise of a computer as a console. After some research I have pretty much decided on using the obscure Cyrix III from Via, because its cheap (pricewatch $35 / 700mhz), runs on standard hardware (Socket 370), and most importantly it runs cool (Via claims that it doesnt even need a heatsink, I'll slap one on just to be safe, but the point of using the processor is to avoid using a fan). I'd also be looking for the most quiet HD available (theres been some recent stories on /. on quiet HDs) and a quiet PSU (I guess I may need 1 fan for the PSU, thats all I hope to have in the entire case for cooling). This machine should run cool/quiet/powerful enough for use as a console system without annoying me with its noise.
  • As soon as I somehow get a spare AMD Duron 850mhz, i'll use my current p3 550 (which can just barely emulate snes games).

    his site is a bit slim on the specifics (to say the least!!).

    someone mentioned "its like an xbox with a worse video card" you dont need a good video card to play nes/snes (just lots and lots of processing power.)

    Another thing, why the 30 gig harddrive!!! All the roms/mp3s/movies you're gonna play are from CD, a 5 gig drive would work just as well.

    Waiting for windows to boot everytime you want to play mario bros cant be fun either. Back when I used to use emulators they were all dos. Theres also no reason why you couldn't shell multiple emulator for the same system (depending on what flavor you like).

    Anyhow, this guy is hardcore.
    • As soon as I somehow get a spare AMD Duron 850mhz, i'll use my current p3 550 (which can just barely emulate snes games).

      There's something wrong with your setup then, cause I can emulate SNES with no problem on a K6-2 400/256megs ram. That's Zsnes/Win2k and Zsnes/FreeBSD. A P3 550 should be able to handle it fine unless you've got something like 32megs ram.

  • Orac (Score:1)

    by Coolio ( 5472 )
    Cool Orac-alike case!

    Probably a lot less irritating and a lot more useful than the original, too...
    • Yes I agree, i dont know if many people here will get the connection tho (and they all should)!

      Blakes 7 people... comeon.

      Say what you want about startrek, but Blakes 7 had the best weapons.

      ...oh yeah, that box thing looks cool too.

      • Blake's 7 had much better tech than any of the Star Treks:

        • Much better weapons, as you say. Especially the hand weapons.
        • Really cool computers with distinct personalities that didn't play a damn jingle before and after saying everything.
        • Proper autorepair systems (at least on the Liberator). This eliminates the need to have a large crew dressed in funny tracksuits crawling around tubes waving little flickering, warbling gizmos at things that need repairing.
  • Am I the only one who thinks this is a big fat "so what"?

    He built a clear case, put a computer in it, wrote a quick front-end to run the desired applications, and sent the output to a tv.

    yay?
  • I hope nobody ever dies from the safety hazards in that case.
  • I'm a nintendo kid who hates most modern video game consoles, and I think something like the sbox is a cool (if easy) project. If I had a decent TV and home entertainment system, and didn't just play the rom's on my computer, I'd do something like this, definitely. I can't believe you guys are ranting about copyright laws (nerd! heh)... but those controllers have got to go. Simple GamePad Pro USB's would suffice.

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